Liberals claim victory in Nepean byelection ahead of state poll | Liberal party
The Liberals have claimed victory in a key Victorian byelection seen as a preview of what to expect when the rest of the state goes to the polls in November.
As counting continued in the Nepean district on the Mornington peninsula, Liberal candidate Anthony Marsh appeared in a commanding position, giving opposition leader Jess Wilson a significant boost.
With nearly 80 percent of the votes counted, Marsh received 38.5 percent of the primary votes and 63.4 percent based on the two candidates.
But the Victorian Electoral Commission was initially running the two-candidate ballot as a race between the Liberals and independent Tracee Hutchison.
Hutchison finished second in the count early on but later fell behind One Nation’s Darren Hercus.
Hercus had 24.7% of the primary vote to Hutchison’s 21.3%.
In his speech to supporters, Marsh said, “I’m so happy to be able to bring this home for you tonight. It’s the honor of my life to stand here as the next member of Nepean.”
“I will be on the ground and fighting for the people of Nepean every day as we head into one of the most important state elections we have ever seen.”
Welcoming the result, Wilson said the party had more work to do before the November election.
Labor chose not to field a candidate in the by-election, and while the Liberals retained Nepean, the party lost close to 10% against him in the primary vote.
Saturday’s by-election was triggered by the sudden resignation of Victorian Liberal deputy leader Sam Groth; the party had held the seat since its formation, except for four years when it fell to Labour.
Marsh had to admit he doesn’t live among the electorate and couldn’t vote for him on Saturday, but he said he has been mayor in the area three times in the last five years.
Hercus told reporters it was a tight race with mixed reactions from voters tired of empty promises.
“We’ve had a number of Liberal voters come to us out of frustration with their own party,” he said.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson campaigned with Hercus but was not present on election day.
“People will vote for him, not me,” Hercus said.
Hutchison told reporters before the count that many voters were looking for alternatives, noting that the district had been overlooked and let down by the major parties for decades.
“I put myself forward as someone who is from here, who cares deeply about this place,” he said.
Benjamin Moffitt, a senior politics lecturer at Monash University, said the strong One Nation boost national polls and South Australian election results could bode ill for the Liberals in the Victorian state election.
“Even if they do somewhat well in Nepean, this is a real problem for the Liberal party,” Moffitt said.
Voters favor the affluent postcodes of Sorrento, Portsea and Flinders, and lower socioeconomic areas such as Capel Sound, formerly known as Rosebud West.
The Mornington Peninsula is officially part of metropolitan Melbourne, but public transport and similar services such as the planned refurbishment of the Rosebud hospital are not key issues for locals.
